Month: February 2025

The 2025 Australasian Computer Science Week, ACSW, will be held at The University of Queensland, 10^th – 14^th Feb 2025.

On 11 February, CIRES Centre Director, Professor Shazia Sadiq will convene a panel entitled “The vital role of Computing Researchers in Science Advocacy”. She is joined by panellists:

• Professor Ben Rubenstein, The University of Melbourne
• Professor Anton van den Hengel, The University of Adelaide
• Kylie Walker, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
• Ann Nicholson, Monash University

About the Panel: Computing research is often celebrated for its transformative contributions to diverse fields such as health, energy, agriculture, and more. However, this narrative frequently casts computer science as merely an enabling discipline, sidelining the critical role of fundamental computing research in shaping scientific and technological progress.

This panel aims to challenge this perception and advocate for computing researchers as first-class citizens in science advocacy. Bringing together leading experts, this discussion will spotlight the unique contributions of computing research—from theoretical breakthroughs to paradigm-shifting advancements in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and quantum computing.

Panelists will explore why these foundational innovations deserve recognition not just for their application potential but as pivotal drivers of scientific inquiry and discovery. The session will delve into strategies for elevating the visibility of computing researchers within broader scientific advocacy frameworks. How can the computing community assert its role in shaping research agendas, influencing policy, and inspiring the next generation of scientists? What messaging and collaborations are needed to emphasize computing as a cornerstone of scientific advancement? Join us to redefine the narrative and ensure that the voices of computing researchers are central to the future of science advocacy.

CIRES Chief Investigator, Professor Gianluca Demartini participated in the Fourth Strategic Workshop on Information Retrieval (SWIRL) in Lorne Victoria from 9-12 February 2025.

SWIRL is an invitation-only gathering of the leading international researchers who come together every 5-6 years to collaboratively develop a research roadmap for Information Retrieval research for the next 5+ years. The reports produced in previous SWIRL workshops are highly cited and have been influential on the research done by both academia and industry in Information Retrieval. The final report will be made available in the SIGIR Forum Journal.

We are pleased to welcome Xuwei Xu to CIRES! 

Xuwei Xu joined the Centre as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in February 2025 and is based at The University of Queensland. His research focuses on efficient neural networks and vision transformers.

His previous work broadly involved methodologies for efficient neural networks, aiming to achieve a better trade-off between efficiency and performance. He proposed token reduction approaches to reduce the computational complexity for vision transformers and assisted in developing advanced knowledge distillation methods to improve lightweight models’ performance. His research results contributed to deploying outperforming deep learning models on edge devices.

He will work closely with Associate Professor Sen Wang, Centre Director Professor Shazia Sadiq and Queensland Health. He is keen to collaborate with researchers across the Centre and contribute to the CIRES research agenda.

Welcome Xuwei!